Free Budget Worksheets

Using free budget worksheets to help you make a budget and keep track of your income and expenses just makes sense. It's hard to live beneath your means and increase your wealth without a plan.

Many people prefer to use physical paper and pen to organize their finances, and all of these printable budget worksheets are great for that method. Other worksheets, in the Downloadable and Specialized categories below, also work very well as Excel workbooks, which can be saved and updated throughout the month to track earning, spending and saving.

Downloadable free budget worksheets:

• Family Monthly Budget (Microsoft Excel)
• Personal Monthly Budget (Excel)
• Yearly Budget (Excel)
• Small Business Budget (Excel)

Printable free budget workshets: 

• Basic Budgeting Worksheet
• Detailed Family Budget Worksheet

Specialized free budget worksheets:

• Wedding Budget
• Business Trip Budget
• Holiday Budget (and here's how to make a Christmas budget) 
• Yard & Garden Budget

To use these free budget worksheets, save an original copy to your hard drive first. Then save a copy of the original with a new file name for the current month. Each time you need a new budget worksheet, you can go back to the original (or your most recent personalized one) to make a new budget worksheet for the current month or year.

A good way to stick to your budget is to track your spending through the week and hold a weekly budget meeting, with your spouse if married. Compare your actual spending to your budgeted expenses and adjust as needed.

Some families use a cash envelope system to ensure that they stick to their budget. Money for categories such as food, household and entertainment are doled out into labeled envelopes at the start of each pay period. Once the money is gone, it's gone -- no overspending.